Erasmus Mundus

Aurora I & II - Towards Modern and Innovative Higher Education

Projects aim at promoting university-business cooperation in the Consortium. Aurora builds on an agenda of higher education institutions and business benefiting from working together. In this context, universities need to develop partnerships with enterprises in order to be able to respond better on the demands of markets. Aurora develops management capacity of Partner Universities e.g. sharing good practices on mobility and mobility administration; creating transparent, democratic and open administration processes that enhance mutual responsibility and accountability in the decision-making processes; and improving transparency and recognition of studies and qualifications. For the participating institutions Aurora will include increased capacity for international cooperation and modernization; transfer and sharing of knowledge and innovations between education institutions and business; foster universities’ role in regional economy; long-term partnerships and profitable opportunities.
Partner universities are higher education institutions located in eligible EU countries and Russian Federation. Partners receive both incoming and outgoing mobilities within the partnership in all levels. EU partners for St. Petersburg State University of Economics are:

University of Turku, Finland

University of Bologna, Italy

University of Deusto, Spain

University of Groningen, the Netherlands

Humboldt University Berlin, Germany

University of Latvia, Latvia

University of Leuven, Belgium

Masaryk University, Czech Republic

University of Tartu, Estonia

University of Warsaw, Poland

Who can apply?

Aurora is a mobility scheme that is open to European and Russian (also referred as a Third-country) students, researchers and staff members. Please see below the specific requirements:

A. European students and researchers

To be eligible to apply, European applicants in undergraduate, master, doctorate and post-doctorate level, referred to as "students":

1. Must be a citizen of one of the EU countries;

2. Must belong to one of the two Target Groups (TG) presented below;

Target Group

Beneficiaries in TG

Mobility levels available

TG 1

Students registered at one of the European Aurora Partner Universities at the time of submitting application

undergraduate, master,
doctorate, post-doctorate

TG 2

Students registered at a higher education institution (not Partner University) of any EU country; or

Students having obtained a university degree or equivalent from a higher education institution of any EU country

master,

doctorate, post-doctorate

3. Must have sufficient knowledge of the language of the courses or one of the languages currently spoken in the hosting countries;

4. Undergraduate students must have successfully completed at least one year of studies at first higher education level.

N.B. In order to prevent brain drain, Aurora is committed to select undergraduates before their last year of studies or to support their connection to the Home University by other means. Neither European nor Third-country applicant can benefit from more than one Aurora grant (under EM ECW or EM Action 2). Neither can any applicant benefit from a second scholarship for the same type of mobility under another EM ECW/EM Action 2 project.

B. Academic and administrative staff (European or Third-country)

In order to be eligible to apply, academic and administrative staff, referred to as "staff":

1. Must be a citizen of one of the EU countries or Russian Federation;

2. Must belong to one of the two Target Groups (TG) presented below;

Target Group

Beneficiaries in TG

TG 1

Third-country staff: must work in or be associated to one of the Aurora Partners Universities in Russia

EU staff: must work in or be associated to one of the Aurora Partner Universities in Europe

TG 2

Third-country staff: must work in or be associated to a higher education institution (not a Partner University) in Russia

EU staff: must work in or be associated to a higher education institution (not a Partner University) of any EU country

3. The mobility assignment must be based on partnership agreements between the members of the partnership;

4. The home and host universities and the individual staff must agree on the programme of lectures to be delivered by the visiting staff, on the research activities or on the type of training to be followed;

The mobility of staff should contribute to strengthen international co-operation capacity of higher education institutions in Russia, with the production of new teaching material, as well as their management capacity. It should aim to consolidate and extend links between departments and faculties and to prepare for future cooperation projects between the universities. The staff mobility is also expected to lead progress in the application of ECTS or other system for recognition of studies in the partner institution

N.B. Neither European nor Russian applicant can benefit from more than one Aurora grant. Neither can any applicant benefit from a second scholarship for the same type of mobility under another EM ECW/EM Action 2 project.